© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Carlyle Group logo is displayed at the company’s office in Tokyo, Japan October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Author: Chibuike Oguh
(Reuters) – Carlyle Group has hired Harvey Schwartz, a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE: ) executive, as its next chief executive, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
Schwartz’s appointment, which is expected to be announced on Monday, ends Carlyle’s search for a new CEO following the departure of Kewsong Lee last August.
A Carlyle spokesman declined to comment, while Schwartz could not be reached for comment.
Schwartz, 59, left Goldman in 2018 after a 20-year career at the investment bank in which he held several senior roles, including chief financial officer and global co-head of trading. He ran to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as CEO of Goldman before losing to David Solomon.
In 2021, he was appointed chairman of the Bank of London group, a British clearing and transaction bank. He sits on the board of online lender SoFi Technologies Inc.
Washington, DC-based Carlyle is considered to have underperformed rivals Blackstone (NYSE:) Inc, Apollo Global Management (NYSE:) Inc and KKR & Co (NYSE:) Inc in recent years, particularly in asset growth under management and performance of shares.
Carlyle, whose founders – David Rubenstein, William Conway and Daniel D’Aniello – control about 26% of the company, refused to renew Lee’s five-year contract after his turnaround efforts fell short of expectations. The founders also felt that Lee did not adequately consult them on major decisions, the sources said earlier.
Succession drama has plagued Carlyle since 2017, when Conway and Rubenstein first relinquished their roles as co-CEOs to their much younger protégés Lee and Glenn Youngkin.
Lee, who joined Carlyle in 2013 after spending 21 years at Warburg Pincus, was named the firm’s sole CEO in 2020 following the departure of Youngkin, who stepped down to launch a successful campaign for governor of Virginia. Youngkin worked at Carlyle for 25 years.
Conway returned to his role as Carlyle CEO on an interim basis following Lee’s departure last year.
Carlyle, which has $369 billion in assets under management, is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 7.